When the voice that sounds like it was filtered through blackstrap molasses and 18-year-old single malt said a deliciously elongated “hellooooooo,” there was no need to ask: “Can I please speak to George?”

There was no mistaking it. It was the voice of actor, author, activist and pop culture legend George Takei a.k.a. Star Trek’s original Mr. Sulu.

“I’m recognized before you see me. As a matter of fact, sometimes my voice gets me in trouble,” said Takei recently.

“Sometimes I can let my ugly self appear.”

By ugly self Takei means getting a little wound up when travelling and dealing with a crowded airport. The horror.

But after almost an hour of lively, wide ranging conversation with the thoughtful, funny and interesting octogenarian it’s hard to imagine an “ugly self,” exists in any great measure in the iconic Star Trek star.

It’s been 53 years since Takei first took a seat on the bridge of the USS Enterprise as helmsmen Hikaru Kato Sulu. The TV series ran from 1966 to 1969, then took on new life in re-runs. That original cast got back to together for the first six Star Trek films, made from 1979 to 1991.

While the original Star Trek will live long and forever prosper in the annals of entertainment, these days when you bring up Takei’s name quite often people say: “Oh, I follow him on Twitter.” And by people I don’t mean convention-going Trekkies.

If you haven’t followed Takei, do. He is political, fearless and fun.

The cast of the original Star Trek.PARAMOUNT /
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Takei, who has almost 3 million followers, says he jumped on Twitter as soon as the 140-word monster appeared, but now he is wary of what the social media platform has become.

“I did embrace it right off the bat. I thought it was wonderful,” said Takei, who also has millions of followers on Instagram and Facebook.

“You know, the old classic town square where everybody from a college professor to the village idiot can get on their soapbox and people will listen to them.

“It was a wonderful way to communicate, and I was able to have conversations via social media all over the world. The globe was the town square. But over the years the ugly side of social media appeared … these people called trolls.”

Takei named online bullying of vulnerable teens and nefarious political entities attacking democracy as two big reasons for his dismay with this part of the digital universe.

George TakeiHandout /
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“What I once thought was a wonderful way to have civil, friendly and engaging discussion has turned into a menace in our society,” said Takei, who when asked if he gets trolled answered: ‘Oh my God. yes’.”

So it doesn’t take someone of Spock-like intellect to figure out the openly gay activist doesn’t dig America’s Tweeter-in-Chief President Donald Trump, and those who surround him.

While Takei acknowledges and sometimes publicly condemns the polarization of the US right now, he is quick to point out that his “ugly self” never gets so ugly that he loses hope or is no longer able to see the good in the world.

“I feel blessed in so many ways. The fact that I live in a country where, despite all these problems, I can make a contribution to making it better, that I can speak out. I can raise funds. I can sometimes hopefully prevail in a situation and make the situation better,” said Takei.

“So, I feel blessed that way. I’d rather look at the positive and optimistic side than say I live in a terrible country, it’s divided, we’re at war with each other.

“People who are negative and pessimistic get nothing done. It’s the optimists that see the possibilities in the situation and can say ‘I can deal with it. I can make it better’,” said Takei.

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One of those ways to make it better is to lend a charitable hand, and that is just what he will be doing when he joins the Global B.C. News Hour team on Feb. 10 at the Molson Canadian Theatre at the Hard Rock Casino Vancouver as co-host for the Variety Show of Hearts Telethon.

This year is the 53rd incarnation of the telethon that, to date, has distributed more than $150 million to B.C. families with kids with special needs.

In an interesting bit of telethon trivia, Takei’s old cast mate and friend Leonard Nimoy, a.k.a. Mr. Spock, co-hosted the telethon from 1970-77.

“I love following in Leonard’s footsteps on things like this,” said Takei, adding that while shooting the Star Trek shows and movies Nimoy and he were conversation mates between shots.

“We sat around the set and talked about the latest headlines. He was a politically involved person as well. We were usually involved in the same political campaigns. We didn’t prevail. We were always supporting the candidates that didn’t, win like Adlai Stevenson.”

Leonard Nimoy, left, as Spock and William Shatner as Capt. Kirk in the first episode of the original Star Trek in 1966.

Takei will be sticking around Vancouver for a few months, as he is working on the second season of the Ridley Scott executive produced AMC series The Terror.

Set during Second World War, the 10-part series centres on a ghost that menaces Japanese-Americans in their homes, in the Pacific theatre, and Japanese American internment camps.

Takei plays a retired Japanese-American fisherman on the show, but he is also signed on as a consultant as he comes with an understanding of the time period: Takei and his family were among the 120,000 Japanese Americans that were interned just after Japan bombed Pearl Harbour in 1941.

At age five, Takei along with his parents and two siblings were sent to Arkansas then to Northern California. The family spent three and half years in camps.

“My childhood internment has defined my life. I’m an activist because of my childhood imprisonment,” said the Los Angeles native.

“It was the most irrational, mindless, hateful act. We were innocent people who had nothing to do with Pearl Harbour.”

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As a teenager Takei became angry that history and the civics books he was reading didn’t include what he and his family and thousands of others went through.

Throughout the years Takei has revisited his history and used his creativity to make sure that dark time in the U.S. doesn’t ever fall from memory.

His 1994 autobiography To The Stars discussed his internment. In 2015, he starred in the Broadway musical Allegiance that was loosely based on his family’s story. He is now working on The Terror, and this summer will publish his first graphic novel They Called Us Enemy, about a family that manages to find some joy while being in a camp.

While heavy topics are covered there are constants in a conversation with Takei — optimism and openness. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry constantly reinforced those two things, he said.

“Gene Roddenberry was an optimist. He was one of those people who saw the goodness in people and that is so important,” said Takei, about the celebrated and inclusive visionary.

“The philosophy of Star Trek was made into an acronym — IDIC: Infinite diversity, infinite combinations — and you saw that usually on the bridge of the Enterprise.”

As Roddenberry once said: “If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear.”

So if you could transport Roddenberry to 2019 what would he think about the modern world, about social media trolls, and the Alt Right?

Takei doesn’t hesitate to answer.

“He was outspoken while he was alive, and I can’t imagine he would be any different if he was still with us,” said Takei about Roddenberry, who died in 1991.

“Make America Great Again is now the motto of people that want to divide us. Diversity is their enemy. They can’t take differences. Gene Roddenberry saw differences as strength.”